Dear Parishioners,

This week’s Gospel message concludes the instructions that Jesus gave to His first apostles as He prepares to send them into the world to continue His mission.  He challenges them and us to place our love and trust in Him before all else and to pick up our cross and follow Him.

When we hear Jesus say that anyone who loves father or mother, or sister or brother, more than Him is not worthy of Him, He is not telling us not to love other people; rather, He is telling us that we must love Him more than all else.  If we truly love Him above all else, then we show that love by our love for others.

Jesus gives us the tools and the command to follow Him and He promises us eternal life.  He does not; however, promise us an easy life in this world.  We will experience pain, suffering, confusion, persecution, ridicule and many more crosses to carry and He is encouraging us to carry our cross with grace and dignity.  He shows us how to carry our cross as He carried His to Calvary.  By accepting and carrying our cross, we show our love for Him who gives us the strength to carry it.

During this pandemic, we have experienced unprecedented challenges as we proceed into a new normal and these challenges have created extra burdens and crosses in how we live our lives and experience our faith.  We must focus on our complete love of God during these challenging times and look to Jesus for the grace and strength to carry the cross that we may be faced with.
 
Fr. George P. Blais

Dear Parishioners,

In this week’s Gospel, we hear Jesus preparing His disciples to go out into the world to continue His work.  He tells them and us that they are going into a world that will not always accept them and He wants them to be prepared to be persecuted for the message that they bring.  He tells them that they will not be alone because He walks with them and He encourages them to speak about what they have heard.

We are living in very challenging times and it is very easy to be discouraged and feel abandoned; however, Jesus is reminding us to stand firm and proclaim the gift of salvation that we have received from Him to all the world.  Like those first apostles, we too will be challenged and persecuted for sharing the truth about God’s Love and Mercy, but Jesus reminds us to be steadfast in our living out the Gospel message in this world.  We have received the light of Christ in Baptism and are called to be that light for all the world to see.  

We are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and are called to be the Body and Blood of Christ to all that we encounter.  What we receive becomes who we are, and what we do with this great and precious gift is our gift back to God.  Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father”.  Like the first apostles of Jesus, let us go into the world and proclaim the love of God that has been revealed to us by Jesus His Son.

On this Father’s Day weekend, I wish all our fathers, grandfathers, godfathers, and father figures a very blessed day and I pray that they will always be the spiritual leaders of their family that they are called to be.  Like the first apostles, our fathers are called to be examples of the Gospel message to their children so that they can go into the world and be examples of God’s love to all they encounter.

Once again, our public Masses have resumed, and we invite you back to Mass on a first come first served basis.  A few things to remember are; face coverings are required, hand sanitizer is essential, please keep social distance from one another, bring your own missalette that you were given last week or we will provide you with one, and only 100 people are allowed for each Mass.  If we have more than 100 people, the Parish Center has been set up to accommodate overflow.  We will have the Mass projected on a screen and Holy Communion will be brought to those in the Parish Center. 
 
Confessions are being heard on Saturday mornings after the 9:00a.m. Mass and on Wednesday evening from 6:00 – 7:00p.m.  Father Martin will hear confessions in the vestibule of the Parish Center and Father George will hear confessions outside the side doors of the large parking lot.

May God Bless you and Mary, our Blessed Mother intercede for us.
 
Fr. George P. Blais